Steve Rubel is still worried about AutoLink:

Google today shipped the gold master of its new Internet Explorer toolbar, complete with the oft-criticized autolink feature. eWeek has more including a soundbite from me. While the company made some changes to the Toolbar to give users options, Google still snubbed publishers. Autolink remains and the Toolbar now changes a publisher's content without their permission...with no way to opt-out. Gee, maybe the Google Content Blocker (a spoof) isn't so far from what we might see in the future.

All this, and no putting two and two together (the syndic8 thing I referenced). For that matter, on the political side I've noticed a few bloggers raising questions about Google News and how it picks content - the thought being that there's some active bias going on. That gets almost no attention, all the attention to the syndic8 thing gets cheered on by what amounts to a mob - and the entire Universe gets it shorts twisted over AutoLink - even as they cheerfully munge publisher content with ad blockers of various sorts.

At least inattention and hypocrisy are alive and well.